An interconnection network refers to any system that enables data communication among its components, or nodes. An interconnection network may be any switch, router, processor-memory, input/output (I/O), system on a chip (SoC), network on a chip (NoC), multiple-chip processor cluster, multi-rack, multi-chassis, or other network. An SoC refers to a system that integrates all the functionality of a computer or other complex electronic data system onto a single integrated circuit or chip.
Network topology refers to the arrangement of the nodes in an interconnection or other network. Topology design may affect network performance, cost, power consumption, scalability, migration, and flexibility. Some examples of network performance metrics are network latency and network bandwidth. Network bandwidth refers to the maximum rate or throughput at which information is delivered in a network. Network latency refers to the delay between the sender of a packet and the receiver that receives the packet. Network performance depends on several factors, such as the physical topology of a network and/or the routing algorithm employed for selecting forwarding paths in the network. Consequently, topology design involves weighing many factors and is an important aspect of network implementation.